TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The project to build the first Iranian university in Iraq has commenced in the Arab country’s capital, Baghdad, as part of efforts to boost academic relations between the two neighbors.

During a ceremony in Kadhimayn, north of Baghdad, on Monday, the construction of the Iranian university named ‘al-Mustafa al-Amin’ was launched.

Several high-ranking Iranian and Iraqi officials, including Iran’s Ambassador to Baghdad Iraj Masjedi and Iraq’s deputy minister of higher education and scientific research, attended the ceremony.

The university will house faculties offering majors in experimental sciences, humanities and Islamic sciences, Abdollah Hassani, the head of university’s board of trustees and vice chancellor for administrative and financial affairs, said.

Faculties of literature, jurisprudence and law will be set up in the first stage of the project, he said.

The university will cover an area of 22,500 square meters and is expected to admit 3,000 students initially, Hassani said.

• August, 15, 2017

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s oil minister unveiled plans for the construction of a major oil terminal on the shores of the Sea of Oman southeast of the country to facilitate crude exports.

Speaking in a televised program on Monday evening, Bijan Zanganeh said the “strategic decision” to build the new oil terminal has been made by President Hassan Rouhani.

The new terminal on the shores of the Sea of Oman will be used for exporting oil, Zanganeh added, saying the project has been put out to tender, a contract will be signed in the current Iranian year (ends in March 2017), and the construction work will begin next year.

Moreover, an oil refinery with a capacity of 300,000 barrels of crude oil will be built in the vicinity of the new terminal, he added.

In order to feed the terminal, Iran will need to construct a pipeline stretching more than 1,000 kilometers to carry one million barrels of oil a day, Zanganeh went on to say.

In January 2016, Iran’s Oil Ministry said an oil terminal on the shores of the Sea of Oman would remarkably reduce the country’s reliance on the Strait of Hormuz and cut the shipping distance for oil tankers.

According to the ministry, the oil terminal, to be constructed on the coast of Jask, would allow oil tankers to sail 1,000 less miles for loading and reduce shipping costs.

• August, 29, 2017

ASTARA (Tasnim) – The executive director of the Astara Development Project said a terminal with an annual loading and unloading capacity of 2.5 million tons of grain and other commodities is being constructed at Astara Port in northern Iran.

“The dedicated capacity of this port (Astara Port) has been designed for 2.5 million tons per year and now there is a big project under construction in this important port of Iran for the grain terminal,” Alireza Cheshm Jahan told the Tasnim news agency on Sunday.

He added, “In this grain terminal between 1 to 1.5 million tons per year would be handled for the grains. The grains will be discharged by two ship unloaders and will be transferred to a site with a capacity of 30000 tons. The ship unloaders’ capacity per hours is around 300 tons.”

Cheshm Jahan further said that for granting smooth berthing and un-berthing of vessels and also the safe approach to the port, a dredger, as well as a tugboat, have been ordered and both of them will arrive in the Astara port in October.

“So, having these two items of equipment in the port will grant around 1.5 million tons of capacity for the grains. At the meantime, for serving different types of cargos and general cargos and also for woods and for timbers as well as the chemical products and the other types of the cargos, this port will be equipped with sufficient equipment.”

“After having this equipment and infrastructures we will hope to receive up to one million tons of capacity per year (for non-grain products). So, in general, 2.5 million tons will be available within the next 24 months,” the port official underscored.

• September, 10, 2017